Ensuring the availability of CAM medicinal products

On 1 July 2015, another meeting of the CAM Interest Group took place, hosted and chaired by MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen (Finland).Its subject was "Ensuring the availability of CAM medicinal products for the benefit of EU citizens in order to exploit their potential to address some major health issues of our time such as antimicrobial resistance and chronic disease."

In several EU Member States, the availability of CAM herbal, homeopathic, and anthroposophic medicinal products is unnecessarily restricted, a fact confirmed by a recent report by Matrix Insight, commissioned by DG Health and Food Safety. The lack of availability of these products inhibits an increasing demand by EU citizens for low risk, health-enhancing CAM medicines, hampering the ability of doctors and practitioners to deliver CAM treatments effectively. It also undermines the potential benefit of these products in helping to tackle health issues prioritised by the Commission e.g. combating anti-microbial resistance, managing chronic conditions and sustaining healthy ageing. Urgent measures are now needed to increase the availability of these products across the EU.

Experts from the CAM community outlined issues that limit the availability of CAM medicinal products, presenting proposals for positive action within the current legal framework in order to improve their accessibility.

A letter, signed by members of the Parliament, was sent to Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, urging him to issue a Communication addressing the problems highlighted by the Matrix report.